Automating a Model to DeMaterialize

Ok folks, the Doctor is about to take off on one of his fantastic adventures. He flies through the doors of the TARDIS and dances up to the console and starts throwing levers and spinning dials while babbling something about the pools on some distance somewhere, sometime.
You, his faithful Companion, secure the doors and travel up the ramp to assist with the takeoff ritual.
Doing a cha-cha he moves to the far side of the control panel and with a boisterous "GERONIMO!!" he engages the dematerialization lever.
The TARDIS groans and whines, the cylinder starts to travel up and down as she comes to life...
Suddenly the familiar BONG of the Claxon sounds and there's a loud CLUNK!! Everything STOPS!!!
The TARDIS won't dematerialize.

Let's give it a hand.

Let's Dematerialize a TARDIS

This process involves working with Material Overrides and getting your hands dirty in that "Oh so Dangerous" Element Editor.

So, Roll up your sleeves, break out your Sonic Screwdrivers and let's get to work.

Step One -

Open up SFM, create a session and load a map.

Step Two -

Create an animation set for a New Model (I'm using a (guess what) for this guide, but this should work on almost any model, so go nuts!)

Step Three -

Right click on the model and select Add Override Materials - (It will look like nothing happened)

Step Four -

Right click on the model and venture where no one likes to go - Select Show in Element Viewer and select Model

Step Five -

Look down the list of Elements and find Materials (this was added when you added the material override. If it isn't in the list of elements go back to Step Three and try again.)

Click the + beside materials to expand the list of materials

In the case of this TARDIS, there are 3 Materials used on the model and I want to control them all.

NOTE: I have seen models where all the materials do not list in the element viewer. (Models from TLGSTSRNameless have given me problems. Right Raptorn??) If this is the case, you'll have to dig into the model and create the missing material references you want to control before you can use this procedure. (That process is beyond the scope of this Guide.)


Now you have to perform these next steps on each material you want to control:

Step Six -

Right click on a material you want to control and select Add New Attribute and then select Float
(We'll discuss why you want Float and not integer later.)

Step Seven -

When the Attribute popup appears, change the name from newAttribute to $alpha (you're going to add an alpha override onto the material.) The Dollar sign IS important, if you just type alpha, the process will not work. The Name must be $alpha.



As soon as you click OK the material is going to disappear. The reason is that the default setting for $alpha is 0 (zero) and zero mean invisible.

Do this step for all the materials you want to control.

NOTE: If you are expecting that your model will be completely invisible when you finish assigning the new attributes but certain materials are still visible, it means that there may be a missing material from the list and you have to create an element for it, or you material will not accept the $alpha override. You'll have to research that on your own because that situation is outside the scope of this guide.

Step Eight -

Now, click the + sign beside the material names to expand the material attributes. You find the the $alpha attribute you just created. Beside it in the values column you'll see that it is set to 0 (zero), change that value to 1 (one). The materials will become fully visible as soon as you commit the change by pressing enter. 0 (zero) is invisible and 1 (one) is fully visible.


Okay, now let's discuss why we selected a float to be the value for the $alpha instead of an integer. Well, we want to be able to have the materal go from fully visible through translucient to invisible and vis-versa. Because 0 is fully OFF and 1 is fully ON (like a light switch) we need to be able to access the decimals or fractions between 0 and 1 (ie .05, .1, .35, .75, etc.) A float lets us do this and we can fade the materials in and out. An integer on the other hand is a whole number, it can not access the decimals and would cause the material to be either fully on, or fully off.)

Step Nine -

For each material you want to control, Right click on the material name and select Create Animationset for Element. You'll get a popup box for the $alpha Attribute. This is where you set the minimum and maximum level for the slider that you will use to control the $alpha channel of the material. If you want the material to go completely invisible, set the minimum to 0 (zero). If you don't want it to go completely invisible, set it to a decimal greater than 0 but less than 1, but it has to be less than the maximum value. Same for the maximum, if you want to be able to make the material fully visible, set it to 1 (one), else set it to a decimal between 0 and 1 but it must be higher than the minimum value.

After setting these it will appear as if nothing happened.

If you have more than one material to set up, go back Step Six and complet the Step Six to Step Nine process on each material you want to control. For my TARDIS I had 3 materials I wanted to control, I had to complete Steps Six to Nine on each of them.

Step Ten - Magic Time

Switch back to the Animation Set Editor
There you should find a new animation name for each of the materials you completed the the process on. If you select a material you should find a slider for it, the slider should be all the way to the right because we set the value to 1 in the element viewer.


Change to the motion editor, slide the slider and watch your model disappear. Slide it back and watch it reappear. You'll also notice that the Timeline turns orange. This material can now be animated to fade in and out as you want it to in your clip.

Repairs Complete And Away We Go!!!

The shrill of the Sonic Screwdriver dies out and the Doctor throws the lever.

http://youtu.be/kgSr3IN5hj0

[akk#2]

why my model is black and white?

[BlondeLombax]

I know this may count as a necro, but you need to turn off the scene heirarchy to get the animsets to show. It's an honest mistake anyone could make.

[Victor the Dragon]

EmperorFaiz.docx, dont try be smart. Its not work.

[EmperorFaiz.docx]

Don’t try blame other for your own fault.

[Victor the Dragon]

you should have at least written that this method does not always work or something like that or offered an alternative. What a waste of time my God.

[Victor the Dragon]

your method is not working :\

[Victor the Dragon]

"Switch back to the Animation Set Editor
There you should find a new animation name" its not appears.

[יDoctor Lloyd Jenkins CXXVII]

Is there a way to get this to work in Source 2 Filmmaker? It doesn't let me add attributes to materials like in step 6.

[ᄽoO..Ooᄿ]

*color change issue* managed to do it but the model turned white (originally black)

[iN.Nephillim[☯︎]]

I've did everything but I don't get the $alpha thing in my element viewer. I've been looking it for several minutes inside my model. Can someone help?